Toy vehicle acceleration mechanism

ABSTRACT

AN ACTION TOY UTILIZING A MOTOR-DRIVEN ROTATING DRUM POSITIONED TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH A SURFACE OF SMALL, UNPOWERED VEHICLES MOVING ON A ROADWAY, OPPOSITE ANOTHER SURFACE OF THE VEHICLES WHICH IS SIMULTANEOUSLY IN CONTACT WITH A STATIONARY PRESSURE MEANS, SO THAT UNDESIRED COMPONENTS OF FORCES ACTING BETWEEN THE DRUM AND THE PRESSURE MEANS ARE CANCELLED AND ONLY THE COMPONENT OF ACCELERATING FORCE IN THE DESIRED DIRECTION ALONG THE ROADWAY IS ALLOWED TO ACT ON THE VEHICLES.

- I Feb. 2; 197-1 l E 555 3,559,335

TOY VEHICLE ACCELERATION MECHANISM Filed May 26, 1969 TnoMAs 6. 5:: ART-H on 8. 10mm United States Patent TOY VEHICLE ACCELERATION MECHANISM Thomas E. See, Huntington Beach, and Arthur S. Woodward, Sylmar, Calif., assignors to Mattel, Inc., Hawthorne, Calif., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 26, 1969, Ser. No. 827,864 Int. Cl. A63h 11/00 US. Cl. 46202 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An action toy utilizing a motor-driven rotating drum positioned to come into contact with a surface of small, unpowered vehicles moving on a roadway, opposite another surface of the vehicles which is simultaneously in contact with a stationary pressure means, so that undesired components of forces acting between the drum and the pressure means are cancelled and only the component of accelerating force in the desired direction along the roadway is allowed to act on the vehicles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The background of the invention will be set forth in two parts.

Field of the invention The present invention pertains generally to the field of toy vehicles and tracks or roadways upon which they travel and more particularly to a novel technique to accelerate unpowered vehicles along a track or road-Way.

Description of the prior art Toy unpowered vehicles are well known in the art. Generally, these vehicles, for example, are either adapted to be pushed along a horizontal surface such as a boor and on the ground or they are designed to follow a track or roadway and caused to accelerate therealong through the force of gravity by elevating a portion of the roadway. There are certain obvious disadvantages to these prior art toys utilizing unpowered vehicles. In the first example above, there is provided no means to control the direction of travel of the vehicles and requires a manual motivating force by the user such as by simply pushing. In the second example, the roadway must be provided with an elevated portion and after each run, the vehicle must be manually replaced at'the top of the elevated roadway.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing factors and conditions characteristic of unpowered vehicle toys, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved unpowered vehicle toy not subject to the disadvantages enumerated above and having a track or roadway for guiding unpowered toy vehicles, adjacent which roadway is disposed propulsion means for engaging and accelerating these vehicles along the track.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an unpowered vehicle toy that does not require a portion of a roadway upon which the vehicle travels to be elevated and which provides an acceleration force on the vehicle independently of the force of gravity.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide an unpowered vehicle toy 'wherein vehicles of varying sizes and weights may be accelerated along a track or roadway.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an unpowered vehicle toy wherein the vehicles are accelerated by propulsion means along a track in a stable condition so as to reduce the chance of having the vehicles leaving the track due to instability.

According to the present invention, stationary pressure means is disposed in a position to contact unpowered toy vehicles on a roadway. Also, propulsion means including a rotating drum is disposed adjacent the roadway opposite the toy vehicles from the stationary pressure means for engaging the vehicles and providing thereto a force equal but opposite from the stationary pressure means and also an accelerating force in the direction of travel of the vehicles along the roadway.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention and specific embodiments thereof will be described hereinafter by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements or parts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a single rotating drum toy vehicle acceleration mechanism constructed according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 1212 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of the invention wherein a single rotating drum acts along the side of a vehicle to be accelerated;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of an embodiment of the invention wherein a single rotating drum acts on an upper surface of a toy vehicle; and

FIG. 5 illustrates yet another embodiment of the invention similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 but including means for allowing the rotating drum to follow the irregular upper contour of the toy vehicle to be accelerated.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring again to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, a first embodiment of the invention is shown generally designated as a single drum vehicle propulsion unit 301. This unit comprises a roadway portion 303 having an inner side wall 305 and an outer side wall 307 and a pair of elevating members 309 supporting the roadway portion 303. Attached to the side walls 305 and 307 is a tunnel arrangement 311 including side members 313 and a roof member 315.

The roadway portion 303 is provided with a rectangular aperture 317 approximately centrally disposed between the side walls. The dimensions of the aperture 317 are large enough to just accept a portion of a rotating drum 319 protruding therethrough as it rotates in the direction indicated by an arrow 321. The drum 319 includes a pair of outer resilient tire portions 323 and is mounted on a motor shaft 325 of the electric motor 327. In order to energize the electric motor, it may be connected by means of electric wire 329 to a source of electricity (not shown). Alternatively, the drum 319 may be provided with a single tire portion.

In operation, an unpowered toy vehicle 331, which is to be accelerated along the roadway 303 in the direction indicated by an arrow 333, makes simultaneous contact at its bottom portion 335 with the resilient tire portion 323 and at its top portion 337 with a resilient pressure exerting surface 339 of a stationary pressure plate 341. The pressure plate 341 is mounted on the tunnel arrangement 311 and extends from the roof member 315 to position over the axis of rotation of the drum 319. The function of the resilient pressure plate 341 is to exert an equal and opposite vertical force on the top portion 337 of the vehicle 331 as is being exerted by the tire portion 323 on the bottom portion 335 of the vehicle, to allow it to remain in a stable condition while being provided with a horizontal force in the direction 333. The resilient pressure plate may be fabricated from any suitable synthetic or metallic material such as for example, beryllium copper.

An unpowered toy vehicle may also be provided with an acceleration force in the desired direction by a single rotating drum acting against a stationary pressure plate in a horizontal positioning arrangement 401 as shown in FIG. 3. Here, a vehicle 403, having a first side 405 and a second side 407, is to be accelerated in the direction indicated by an arrow 409 along a roadway section 411 including a flat bottom surface 413, an inner wall 415 and an outer wall 417. Alongside the roadway section 411 is an electric motor driven drum 419 having a resilient outer circumference 421 and rotating in the direction as shown by arrow 423. Also disposed alongside the roadway section, directly opposite to the axis of rotation 425 of the drum 419, is a resilient pressure exerting surface 427 of a stationary pressure plate 429. This arrangement provides simultaneous and opposite forces perpendicular to the direction 409 of travel of the vehicle 403 since the resilient surface 421 engages the vehicles first side 405 at the same time the resilient pressure exerting surface 427 engages the vehicles second side 407. This system effectively cancels any lateral resultant force on the vehicle while providing an accelerating force along the roadway in the direction of the arrow 409.

The stationary pressure arrangement described above need not always take the form of a pressure-exerting resilient plate. For example, the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 of a single drum propulsion unit 501 may be utilized. A motor driven rotating drum 503, rotating in a direction as indicated by arrow 505, may be supported above a roadway section 507 so as to have a resilient outer surface 509 contact an upper portion 511 of an unpowered toy vehicle 513 supported by wheels 515 and moving in the direction of arrow 517.

The arrangement described with respect to FIG. 4 utilizes the roadway 507 acting on the vehicle 513 through its wheels 515, to provide the necessary upward vertical force which cancels the downward vertical force component exerted by the pressure of the resilient portion 509 on the vehicles upper portion 511. Of course, the desired horizontal component provided by the rotation of the drum 503 is present to provide the desired acceleration.

The rotating drum may be mounted in a fixed position to contact only the upper portion of the vehicle to be accelerated as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 4, or the drum may be mounted in such a manner that it will follow the upper contour of the vehicle, as is provided by the acceleration unit 601 illustrated in FIG. 5. Here, an unpowered toy vehicle 603 having an irregular upper contour 605 and wheel 607, is to be accelerated in the direction of arrow 609 along a roadway 611. Above the roadway 611 is disposed a rotating drum 613 including a resilient outer contacting surface 615. The drum 613 is mounted in a fixed relationship on an axle 617 that extends through a bearing aperture (not shown) adjacent an outer end 619 of a pivotally mounted arm 621. The axle 617 also carries a drum drive pulley 623 to which an outer drive belt 625 is also coupled to a first intermediate pulley 627 held by an intermediate axle 629 which passes through a bearing aperture (not shown) in a fixed pedestal 631 standing alongside the roadway 611. The intermediate axle 629 also carries a second intermediate pulley 633 that is caused to rotate by the movement of a motor drive belt 635 coupled to an electric motor (not shown). The diameter of each of the various pulleys is not critical and is governed by speed and power consideration well known to any engineer of ordinary skill in the mechanical art.

As can be seen from FIG. 5, the arm 621 is pivoted at its inner end 637, about the intermediate axle 629 to thus allow the drum freedom of movement in the path of an arc segment as indicated by arrow 639. This freedom of movement is limited, however, in its downward direction by a mechanical limit stop member 641 extending upward from the pedestal 631.

The force of gravity acts on the drum-supporting arm 621 to cause the resilient outer surface 615 to follow 4 the irregular upper contour 605 of the toy vehicle 603. In all other respects, this acceleration unit 601 performs like the unit 501 described in detail relative to FIG. 4.

Again, the material used in the fabrication of this toy are not considered critical and any material suitable for a particular use may be utilized.

From the foregoing, it will be evident that the invention provides a new and useful toy that propels unpowered toy vehicles of varying weights and sizes in a stable condition along a track or roadway.

Although specifiic embodiments of the invention have been described in detail, other organizations of the embodiments shown may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Accordingly, it is intended that the foregoing disclosure and drawings shall be considered only as illustrations of the princi les of this invention and are not to be construed in a limiting sense, and the scope of this invention is to be defined by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is: 1. An action toy for accelerating unpowered toy vehicles along a roadway, comprising:

stationary pressure means disposed in a position to contact said toy vehicles on said roadway; and

propulsion means including a rotating drum disposed adjacent said roadway opposite said toy vehicles from said stationary pressure means for engaging said vehicles and providing thereto a force equal but opposite from said stationary pressure means and also an accelerating force in the direction of travel of said vehicles along said roadway.

2. An action toy according to claim 1, wherein said stationary pressure means is a resilient pressure plate.

3. An action toy according to claim 2, wherein said roadway includes a centrally disposed aperture in the surface thereof, said rotating drum being rotatably mounted below said roadway and a portion of the circumference of said drum extends through said aperture in engageable position with respect to the underside of said vehicles, and wherein said pressure plate has a pressure exerting surface disposed directly above that portion of said drum pro truding through said aperture.

4. An action toy according to claim 2, wherein said roadway includes a fiat road surface; wherein said rotating drum rotates about an axis orthogonal to said fiat surface, the circumference of said drum being in engageable position with the side of said vehicles; and wherein said pressure plate has a pressure exerting surface and is disposed alongside said roadway with said pressure exerting surface directly opposite said axis.

5. An action toy according to claim 1, wherein said rotating drum is disposed adjacent said roadway and rotates about an axis perpendicular to the direction of travel of said vehicles, and wherein said stationary pressure means comprises said roadway opposite said drum.

6. An action toy according to claim 5, wherein said drum is rotatably mounted at a first end of an arm member that is pivotally mounted at its second end on a fixed rate support member, said drum being positioned to engage the upper portion of said vehicles.

7. An action toy according to claim 6, wherein said drum is driven by an electric motor.

8. An action toy according to claim 7, wherein said drum is mounted on a first axle that is rotatably carried by a bearing in said arm member, said axle also carrying a first pulley; wherein a second rotatable axle is disposed through said fixed raised support member at the axis of pivot of said arm member, said second axle fixedly carrying a second and third pulley at each of its ends; and wherein a first drive belt engages said second pulley and a motor pulley on said electric motor, and a second drive belt engages said third pulley and said first pulley.

9. An action toy according to claim 1, wherein: said drum includes a resilient outer rim.

10. An action toy for accelerating unpowered toy vehicles along a roadway, comprising:

accelerator lead-in and lead-out track including vehicle restraining side walls;

a vehicle accelerating drum disposed above said roadway between said lead-in and said lead-out track, said drum being rotatable about a fixed axis parallel to the surface of said roadway and perpendicular to the direction of vehicle travel, said drum including an outer resilient portion accommodating the upper portion of toy vehicles engaged thereby; and

motor means operatively coupled to said vehicle accelerating drum for rotating said drum at a desired rate of speed whereby unpowered toy vehicles engaged by said drum are accelerated along said roadway in a stable condition.

11. An action toy for accelerating unpowered toy vehicles along a roadway, comprising:

accelerator lead-in and lead-out track including vehicle restraining side walls;

a housing structure disposed over a section of said roadway between said lead-in and said lead-out track;

an arm member having an end pivotally attached to said housing above said roadway;

a vehicle accelerating drum rotatably mounted at the other end of said arm member, the axis of rotation of said drum being parallel to the surface of said section of roadway and perpendicular to the direction of vehicle travel, said drum including an outer resilient portion; and

motor means operatively coupled to said vehicle accelerating drum for rotating said drum at a desired rate of speed whereby unpowered toy vehicles engaged by said drum are accelerated along said roadway in a stable condition.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,862,333 12/1958 Gardiol 46--202 FOREIGN PATENTS 529,892 6/1955 Italy 46-202 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner R. F. CUTTING, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

